I was diagnosed with ADHD and started on medication at 12, but not really told anything about what it meant for me or how to deal with it, and when I was 18 -literally when my parents dropped me off at college- was told I was autistic
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Got it - was suggesting it as psychs have been much more helpful for me when it comes to ongoing depression compared to weed (but weed helps too though). Also, weed is in fact a very slight psychedelic; and a very interesting aspect of it is that if you did use psychedelics recently (like a few days ago - the effect usually persist for a week, sometimes a bit more) then when you smoke weed, its own psychedelic properties are vastly increased; I've had open eyes visuals on weed alone just because I took DMT a few days before. Can be surprising if you're not expecting it.
In any case, you can also use weed in a more psychedelic/spiritual way. If you're a regular user, you'll probably relate: you know how when you stop smoking cannabis for say, ten days or two weeks, when you start smoking again initially it makes you very high, in a much more intense way that can't be easily explained by decreased tolerance alone ? well, an interesting thing to do is stop using it for ~10 days. Then you take a huge dose through edibles, and you meditate when it starts coming up. The effect is on par with low-doses psych trips - very deep and introspective.
Sorry if I rambled a bit, as an aside.
Yeah, I totally get it and do believe psychedelics would probably be a better solution that might get to the root of things rather than just treating symptoms. That sounds like an awesome technique and I can definitely see how it would work. At this point my tolerance is high enough that recently I decided to not smoke until 9-10pm on weekdays and that has drastically increased my highs. I've also had some visuals and psychedelic experiences with weed alone in the past, but at the time I was in CA and their medical weed was on another level of potency. I think taking a T-Break into some heavy edibles is absolutely something I need to try.
Thanks comrade!
Sorry if I answer again, but I realize I forgot to mention it: before there were SSRIs, there were MAOIs (monoamine oxidase inhibitors) as treatment for depression. There were abandoned relatively quickly as full-scale MAOIs require a pretty strict diet or they can be deadly. Research on them has restarted again more recently as there exists selective MAOIs that only inhibit MAO-A and are fully reversible in a matter of hours - compared to weeks for traditional pharmaceutical MAOIs.
One of those selective, reversible MAOIs is harmine (and harmal alkaloids in general, like harmaline) - a substance produced by a number of plants. It does not require any special diet and is used traditionally by tribes in the Amazon to prepare Ayahuasca - the MAOI effect makes DMT orally active, for several hours. It is also commonly used today in western countries by people doing shrooms or DMT, as it increases the effect of both and makes the later orally active. It has demonstrated antidepressant effects without the risks of the aforementioned pharmaceutical MAOIs, and is now the subject of active further research for those uses.
Now, there is a plant, Peganum Harmala, more commonly called Syrian Rue, which produces seeds that contains tons of harmal alkaloids. It's not the plant Amazon tribes use (that would be Banisteriopsis Caapi), but its seeds have a very similar alkaloids profile. It is extensively used in Iran and other middle-east countries, both in cooking and for medicinal effects.
Do you live in the US ? if so, finding syrian rue seeds is incredibly easy and very cheap - look for "Esphand", another name for it. You can also order them online, they're perfectly legal in the US. If you get those seeds, the basic mode of administration is: crush them into a powder, make a tea with them, filter, and drink. 3g of seeds is a good dose.
Be aware that the harmal alkaloids in question are psychedelic by themselves; but usually at amounts closer to 4g/5g tea, and with side effects (specifically motor dysfunction and nausea - those side effects tend to disappear if you use it enough, though, but for a 3g tea they should be minimal anyway). If you're looking for medicine, this is also definitely worth a try. Drink in the morning, effects last for at least 4 hours. If you notice too much side effects at 3g, go for a 2g tea.
Wow, thanks for all of this info, really appreciate it! I'll keep all of this in mind, thanks again.